What is Payday Super?

With Payday Super, employers must pay their employees’ superannuation at the same time as salary and wages to meet their Super Guarantee (SG) obligations, which are currently assessed quarterly. This aims to strengthen Australia’s super system by supporting more frequent, timely super payments for employees.

What does Payday Super mean for Employers

From July 1, 2026, Employers will be required to ensure that each employee’s SG contribution must be received by their super fund no more than 7 calendar days¹ after payday. To achieve this, employers will typically need to pay super at the same time as salary or wages. There are limited exceptions, including new starters and small or irregular payments.

This change underscores the importance of making timely superannuation payments, which is a crucial part of your employee’s financial planning and future security.

Under the new system, super funds will have a significantly reduced timeframe of 3 business days to allocate or return contributions, down from the previous 20 days. Funds will no longer have an extended period to liaise with employers about contributions that cannot be processed due to incorrect and incomplete data.

Based on these changes , refunds from super funds will increase unless employers take steps to ensure that employee super fund data is correct and complete. And these refunds and errors will occur more frequently and earlier.

What changes for Employers?

Payment Frequency Impact

  1. Employer’s Super correct payment must reach the employee’s fund within 7 calendar days of each payday (This may change in the final legislation)
  2. Applies regardless of whether you pay weekly, fortnightly, or monthly

Super Guarantee Charge (SGC) changes under Payday Super

  • The new penalty regime is intended to be severe on deliberate or frequent non-payers and under-payers, with some scope for softening the headline penalty where an employer proactively addresses errors.

For practical Employer tips on Payday Super preparation, download the infosheet.